For Who Could Ever Learn to Love a Beast?
by ThyLaSlain
Summary: In the middle of a forest, stands a castle in which lives a King who, in return for protecting the town below him, takes in a mortal girl once every twenty years. Twenty years has passed. A girl is chosen. What will happen when Love gets in the way?


**Author Notes: **I have to republish this whole thing because frankly, it's time.

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**.: ****Chapter 1**** :.**  
A Little Town

There once was a little town. So little in fact, that most neighboring towns preferred calling it a village. As small as it was however, people were happy here. Every morning shops opened, bread was bought and sold, women bought groceries, men went to work, those who could afford it waltzed around the better part of town, showing off the things they had bought from the much larger town some miles away, drunkards stumbled out of Inns, beggars begged while gamblers gambled. Nothing was ever out of place in this merry little town – at first glance to any outsider, it was as picturesque as any other small, tucked away settlement. Upon looking closer however, the keen-eyed would notice several things amiss.

All young women who turned eighteen were bound with Genedora Vines; the vines that were said to ward off evil spirits. These vines were carefully dried and woven together to form finely woven ropes that were wound around the girls for an entire year until they reached the age of nineteen. Even then, most women kept some form of the vines with them at all times by sewing milled vines into their corsets or putting them in pouches along with other herbs.

But perhaps, most peculiar of all, people refused to go into the woods that surrounded the little town past sunset. Although the woods were thick and dense there was nothing particularly ominous about them. But the Matriarchs of the village would tell you otherwise. Inside, live the demons of the King who rules the forest. He promises protection to the town so long as they give him one of its daughters every twenty years. In addition to his protection, he would provide for the family whose daughter was given away.

Over the many centuries, the giving away of daughters every twenty years became less of a curse and more of an honor to the families. Their daughters provided wealth. Their daughters provided protection.

**x-o-x-o**

The King stood in a tower looking down at the village below him. It was a great distance between his castle and the village but it did not matter. He could see it just as if it were a few meters away. The people lived on in happy ignorance. He watched the children play in the main square – little flashes of color flitting around like dancing moths or dragonflies in the heavy summer heat. He looked down towards his garden.

Littered below were the stone bodies of the women who had lived with him the past few centuries. Daughters of the little town beyond. Their faces contorted in fear and pain. The King's face, had it been visible for it was covered by a white mask that was smooth and plain save for two eye holes; was blank and emotionless. He kept his colorless eyes trained on the grounds below him and suddenly the backdoors that led to this garden burst open and out flew Vivienne, his current "companion". He heard her cursing and screaming indecencies up at him and she turned to look up to where he stood in the tower. He merely looked on.

Her knees buckled and it seemed that the girl had changed her tactics. Instead of swearing, he could hear her beggingShe was pleading now. Pleading for forgiveness. He backed away slowly from the balcony he stood in and walked retreated back into the tower, Vivienne's scream shrieks following him into the darkness.

Like thick, murky oil, he glided down the staircases down to the back of the castle and out the open backdoors. His eyes fell upon Vivienne. Stone had replaced her flesh, and there she was: forever kneeling, forever head cast down in resignation; hair covering most of her face and velvet gown billowing around her. The King touched her pale marble shoulder and for a moment, the paleness receded and flesh showed beneath his fingers, still warm. As he touched her, the paleness continued to disappearfade away till almost all of her arm was no longer marble.

But upon pulling away, she once more was completely stone. The freckles that lightly dusted her arm, glistened for a split second longer before she was nothing but rock. A perfect dark limestone and marble sculpture; eyes cast down to forever gaze upon the single treasure she had stolen and had caused her demise. He looked on at her tiny marble hands, clutched around the treasure.

He turned away. She had not lasted long. Very few went beyond a few months with him. Behind him, overgrowth seemed to already envelop Vivienne's form, like she'd been there forever. Like she'd be there forever.

Moving back into the darkness of the castle he did not glance back. It would be nineteen years more before his next Taking. It did not matter. He was used to being aloneLoneliness was nothing new to him. And besides, he had all the time in the world.

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**Author Notes: **More information on the story (including faq's), here: **thylaslain. livejournal. com/22086. html** (remove spaces)


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